The Maryland Public Secondary School Association-sanctioned state baseball playoffs were to start Friday with all teams participating. But the fact everyone gets in the tournament left some teams and fans feeling less than well served.

“It’s durn if you do and durn if you don’t,” said Samuel L. Banks coach Sam Brown, whose team finished the regular season 8-3, but wound up as the 10th seed in the 2A-North region. “It’s upsetting to do so well and then be penalized because we could not get 14 games played because of the rain.

“But my kids have been strong. They say it doesn’t matter; we’ll just go out and play whoever we have to play. And I’m happy. They made great strides this season going from about 5-8 last year to 8-3. But you would hope they wouldn’t get penalized because of the weather.”

Earlier this week MPSSAA executive director Ned Sparks told The Sun the executive committee decided about two weeks ago to hold the minimum at 14 games played in order to be seeded.

"We’d already had a lot of rain by the time the committee met and an overwhelming majority of schools got their games in. Some played 17," Sparks said. "A Saturday a couple of weeks ago was sunny and teams scurried to play doubleheaders at two different sites. They were diligent."

Sparks did allow some teams, especially in Baltimore City, where teams like Dunbar play at fields not located on school property, and others play on fields over which they have no control in terms of field maintenance, have unusual problems.

But his remarks drew comments from several readers. One had this to say:

“I just wanted to make a comment about Ned Sparks and how out of touch he is with the children of this day and age and what difficulties a school like Dunbar, and Catonsville or any school would have playing two games on a Saturday,” said Philip Popielski. “I guess he forgets what it [was like] to be a kid in high school, especially the juniors and seniors. Maybe Ned never needed to work or have a second job. Or maybe he never needed to take spring SAT tests, scheduled around proms etc.

"Due diligence, I bet some city schools don’t even have access to the fields they use during the week.”

Some schools don’t. Dunbar, for instance, plays its games in a city park and is dependent on the city’s grounds personnel to make their field playable, something that didn’t happen last week when the 9-0 Poets were struggling to meet the 14-game requirement. They, like Samuel L. Banks, didn’t reach 14 games either, through no fault of their own.

Dunbar is now seeded No. 6 in the 1A-North region. If it wins in round one, it will face Pikesville, 5-11, which got a first round bye. And if it wins that game it could face No. 2 seed Sparrows Point, 6-9, which joyfully accepted the No. 2 seed and the accompanying first-round rest day.

Pikesville, 5-11, is seeded No. 3. It got a bye, too.

There is a little quirkiness in all the regions and we can cheer the good fortune of teams that struggled all season who have been given a chance at new life. And we may say, as Sparks did, “Everyone will have the chance to play and win.”

But who wouldn’t want to see a team that earned a good, winning record be rewarded for its achievement and get that first-round bye instead of being in position for an early upset, like Bel Air, 11-2, is.

The Harford County team came up one game short and is the No. 8 seed in the 3A-East. It will play Meade (3-15) in the first round and then face No. 1 seed Stephen Decatur in the second. In 2A-North, Lansdowne, 1-13, this season is the No. 3 seed.

Perhaps next year if the monsoon season hits during the baseball season the MPSSAA can be a little more nimble and figure out a way to fairly treat teams that have proven themselves all season, made a sincere effort to play their games, but were left short not by their own careless approach, but by Mother Nature.

"Physically, it was impossible for us to play any more games," said Banks athletic director Carol Ansell. "We're very limited by our resources and we had so many cancellations, there just wasn't enough time."

City groundskeepers came regularly to the Samuel L. Banks school to work on the field, but Brown, the coach, said their equipment simply sunk into the wet earth.

"With all the rain we had the field was soaking wet," said Brown. "There was no way we could play. You hope for a lot better.”

The Banks team was to play Friday at Edmondson in the tournament’s first round, but guess what? The field was too wet. Now they’ll try to get the game in Saturday at noon at Poly.